Blog Archives

MICRO ECO BUSINESS: Besides the organic apple-a-day, The Center for the Micro Eco-Farming Movement is working on a report on quality and affordable health care insurance for small business farms — urban to rural.
We welcome legitimate information from real…

TRENDS: Micro farming can look towards trends that will effect other small businesses to guide their way.
This quote is from the Trends Research Institute, which accurately predicted many events, including the current growth in micro farming:
“Craftspeople and small…

MICRO FARMING HOW-TO: Those involved in small-scale dairy farming may have known all along that cows in natural conditions without the stress of fearing the humans who regularly handle them produce better milk yields. The Ig Nobel prizes are awards…

MICRO FARMING HOW-TO: Many of those involved in small scale farming and micro farming utilize various organic mulches. If you own a farm dog or cat, you may want to avoid cocoa mulch, an otherwise excellent mulch widely available.
It’s…

MARKETING: Here’s a link to receive a free brochure on the problems of GMOs, courtesy of the Organic Trade Association, for small scale farmers and micro farmers who would like to hand them out to their customers.
The brochure can…

MICRO ECO BUSINESS: Farming grants are now being offered by the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS). They have several categories which may apply to some involved in small scale farming.
Below are just a couple of past farming grants NRCS…

MARKETING: As small-scale farming and micro eco-farming – urban to rural – continue to grow across the country, so must local food distribution systems. The local small farming and backyard farming communities need places to sell their food and fiber.…

VALUE ADDED: The micro farm and small scale farming community – from blueberry u-picks to lavender farms, are integrating farm art as a value-added product. Some are selling farm images or farm logos on t-shirts, caps and totes. Others are…

SEED/ANIMAL SOURCES: Here’s an intriguing herb garden seed source herb farmers may be interested in. The Center for the Micro Eco-Farming Movement is compiling a major database of seed and plant sources that may be of interest to the eco-friendly…

MICRO-FARMING HOW-TO: Native orchard mason bees are an increasingly popular alternative or addition to honeybees for pollination, especially for early spring blossoming crops. They generally need temperate winters to complete their life cycles, but winter temperatures below 30 F. can…

MICRO FARMING HOW-TO: Here’s a video on an interesting tool getting good reviews for helping you know if you have full sun, partial sun, partial shade, or shade. (The Center for the Micro Eco-Farming Movement has no business affiliation). This…

MARKETING: Using fliers for farm marketing? Perhaps you’re announcing the opening of your roadside stand or soliciting customers for an on-farm festival or u-pick season. Here are some tips to help your fliers benefit your farm marketing campaign:
People in…

AGRITOURISM — It’s not just young and newbie small-scale farmers who embrace agritourism to help their farm’s profit. The long-time small-scale farming community is also restoring its rural livelihood with agritourism as well.
Here’s Farmer Bob Ricci in his own…

TRENDS: The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association reported that organic beef sales had a steady rise and peaked in the 2008 recession, and have again rebounded, hitting levels at 14 percent higher at mid-2009 than they were a couple of years…

MICRO FARMING HOW-TO: Researchers at West Virginia University created a natural bee source of supplemental food that appears to interrupt the reproduction cycle of varroa bee mites without harming bees if done correctly.
It was fed at the entrance and…

Editors wrote:
Got a mobile app in the works that you’re just dying to demo? Unleash it at this happy hour mingle, hosted by Mobile Monday, MassMobile, and Drinks on Tap, groups that regularly bring together developers in the area.…

MICRO FARMING HOW-TO — SEEDS/ANIMAL SOURCES
For a bee source from your own neighborhood, here’s an old beekeepers’ folk method for attracting a new swarm of local honeybees to the bee skep or hive. Rub lemon balm (Melissa…

MICRO FARMING HOW-TO: Micro eco-farmers can become sustainable beekeepers far easier and sometimes for free by using an alternative simple and natural beehive called the top-bar beehive (see video below).
The top-bar honeybee hive’s benefits to small scale farming:
–…

TRENDS: Please enjoy the video below on a 10-acre micro eco-farm in Jordan – and note how it became self-sustained and in fact continues to make itself more abundant even when left on its own. And for even more on…